Pacific
Rim might be the loudest experience I’ve ever had in a movie theater. This is the sort of sound design that’s
perfectly suited for its subject matter- the fights are explosive, the
soundtrack bombastic, and the dialogue high-flying, but it’s all very
well-balanced, and one rarely drowns out the others (although there are some
moments where it does do just that). In
fact, pretty much every aspect of this film- the overblown monster/robot
designs, the simple (but still engaging) characters, the basic story, the
massive, set-piece fights, etc.- are tailor-made for the purpose of delivering two-hours
of pure sensory-overload. And it
succeeds. Oh boy, does it succeed.

In the near-future, humanity
suddenly finds itself under attack from massive, Godzilla-like demons called
Kaiju, all originating from an inter-dimensional rift in the Pacific
Ocean. The attacks seem scattered and
random at first, but slowly start to occur more frequently, until a frightening
pattern emerges. When conventional
weapons prove inadequate to taking down the beasts, the nations of the world
unite to create the Jaeger program (“Jaeger” is German for “hunter”), a series
of massive, Gundam Wing/Neon Genesis-style robotic suits big enough to battle
the Kaiju one-on-one. Although
successful at first, the Kaiju continue to come, and (say it with me) “in
greater numbers,” to the point that the Jaegers are slowly whittled down to a
handful of veteran crews, and the leaders of the world contemplate abandoning
the program altogether and simply hunkering down behind ever-larger walls. Message?
Oh yes.

Our main character is Raleigh
(Charlie Hunnam), an ex-Jaeger pilot who left the program after losing his
brother in an earlier fight with a Kaiju.
The Jaegers, we learn, have to be piloted by two people simultaneously,
since the mental strain is too great for one person (the Kaiju seem to operate
on a similar principle- we later learn that they themselves have two
brains). Because of this, those fighting
in Jaeger suits have to be as physically and mentally in sync as possible,
otherwise the suit can’t be fully utilized.
After his brother died, Raleigh was convinced that he would never again
find someone else he could fight with.
He agrees to rejoin the program only after he receives a visit from his old
commander, another ex-pilot named Stacker (Idris Elba), who now heads all
Jaeger operations. With the Jaeger
program about to be shut down, he is planning a final assault on the portal
itself that, according to his quirky, off-beat scientists (Charlie Day and Burn
Gorman), should be able to seal it permanently.

The only person who proves able to
match him in combat is a young woman named Mako (Rinko Kikuchi), a girl who
survived an earlier Kaiju attack stopped by Stacker himself, who then raised
her as his own. While the argument could
be made that her relationship with Raleigh is a romantic one, I would counter
that their dynamic is more of the girl-with-crush meets
scarred-and-grizzled-mentor variety. And
even if it was meant to be romantic, it’s thankfully never a distraction from
the business of beating giant monsters into big, bluish pulp. The rest of the cast is filled out with the
aforementioned commander and his research team, as well as another of the
remaining Jaeger crews- a father-and-son duo, the younger of whom may as well walk
around in a shirt saying, “I HAVE DADDY ISSUES.”

Honestly, even though Pacific Rim bills itself (and has been
viewed by most) as nothing more than another loud, superficial, CGI-laden
maelstrom with the emotional depth of a teaspoon, I walked out with a lot to
mull over. My initially favorable
opinions of Ironman 3,Into Darkness, andMan of Steelall crumbled distressingly fast the moment they ended
and I started to really think about them (and no, I won’t just “turn my brain
off” for a movie- I rather enjoy being alive, thank you very much). Pacific
Rim is the first action movie of the year to actually appreciate in my mind
the more I ponder everything in it. Yes,
the story is simple, and at times clichéd.
Yes, the characters are also pretty simple people, with straightforward
arcs and actions. And no, that is not a
bad thing. No, that does not make the
movie superficial. And no, it does NOT
make the movie stupid.

Beneath all its grandiose bluster,
this is a movie about relationships, about people with differences who either
fix them or learn to leave them be in order to work together to solve a common
problem, to defeat a common enemy. Each
of the major duos in the movie have their particular issues- Raleigh and Stacker,
Raleigh and Mako, Raleigh and the hotshot young Aussie, the hotshot young
Aussie and his father, the two scientists with each other, and so on and so
forth. Each one is resolved in its own
way in a fairly short time frame. None
of the conflicts are drawn out unnecessarily.
They flare up, maybe a few punches get thrown, a few plans go awry, the
people fix them or agree to let it be, and they get on with the war. And, as basic as all the conflicts and
resolutions are, it’s the coolness and the maturity with which they are handled
that makes this scattered and odd cast feel more real and interesting than most
others I’ve seen this year. No one has a
big, dramatic scene or monologue, and there are no unexpected twists, but you
know what? This cast sticks out in my
mind despite that. I remember each named
character vividly. Not every story has
to have the brilliant, unexpected depth of In
Bruges to be interesting and, dare I say it, fun. Not every character has to be as layered as
Daniel Plainview or as complex as Maestro Salieri. As long as they feel real, and genuine, we
will feel invested in finding out what happens to them. And, regardless of its flaws, when a movie
makes us want to know what happens, it’s doing at least a few things
right.

Pacific
Rim may not be the best movie of the year, but it is the easily the best of
this year’s batch of summer blockbusters, and a rare- a very, very, very rare- example
of 200 million dollars well-spent. Ironman 3, Man of Steel, and Into
Darkness all threw themselves at us with aims just as lofty and budgets
just as bloated, but none of them ever managed to make me cheer out loud in the
middle of the theater. They all sought
to dazzle us, but only Pacific Rim
tried to make us wonder. It brings a
horde of big ideas and bigger set pieces into play and spends two hours simply
playing with them, like a child with its Lego set. It does not try to force overt religious or
political symbolism down our throats.
Because it’s not a remake, reboot, sequel, or adaptation, there are no
previous incarnations to trod upon, no diehard fanbases to offend. Pacific
Rim is, first and foremost, an immensely fun and exciting time at the
movies, like any good, loud, effects-driven blockbuster should be.